A monument to the iS'pantsula as mama feeds the community
- Phumelele Tshabalala, South African, American, 1987
- Work Locations: Los Angeles, CA
Phumelele Tshabalala, A monument to the iS’pantsula as mama feeds the community, 2021. Mixed media on canvas; 65 in. x 45 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Jeffrey Magid, 2021.421. © Phumelele Tshabalala.
Phumelele Tshabalala’s autobiographical painting commemorates a moment when the artist moved back to South Africa after being in the US for many years. Behind a young boy and a woman dressed in regalia, Tshabalala witnessed four figures standing on elevated posts performing iS’pantsula, a dance of resistance. Developed in the 1950s when apartheid restricted the movement of Black people in South Africa, iS’pantsula is a choreographed, fast-step street dance presented by a troupe that became a tool to reclaim free motion.
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